Under the Willow Tree | Draco Malfoy

chapter 69: they thought they killed me

Lorelei Jones | 6th Year

After Lorelei told everyone about the remaining horcruxes, a plan quickly came into action. No one wanted to delay the war any longer than they had to, so they all agreed to work together to destroy the remaining items. If they worked together, this could be over within the week.

Helga Hufflepuff's Cup was in Bellatrix Lesteange's vault at Gringotts. Someone would have to impersonate Bellatrix and retrieve the cup. Narcissa volunteered, saying that she knew her sister's mannerisms better than anyone. Bill Weasley agreed to go with her.

The next Horcrux Lorelei saw was Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. Luna knew what this was immediately, so naturally, she was put on the task force to retrieve it. Theo volunteered to help her.

Lorelei talked about Nagini next. Draco shivered but said that he had seen Nagini plenty of times and would handle her. Harry took some convincing to decide Draco could be trusted with this task, but the trio seemed more comfortable when Lorelei offered to go with him.

The last horcrux was the most difficult for Lorelei to share. She was stiff and avoided their eyes as she asked to speak to Harry in private for this one. Ron Weasley didn't understand, and he kept pressing her to share with everyone. He still didn't completely trust her, and it was clear from the way he grew defensive over her request to speak to Harry privately.

Hermione and Harry both figured it out without Lorelei having to actually say the words.

"Please tell me it isn't true," Hermione said in a voice barely louder than a whisper. She stared at Lorelei with a look so heartbreaking that Lorelei collapsed into tears on the spot.

Even if Lorelei hadn't exactly liked Harry Potter over the years, she felt horrible delivering the news that he was to die if they had any hope of winning the war. No one deserved to hear that.

After Ron slowly came to realize what was happening from Hermione's quiet cries and Harry's horror-stricken expression, the three of them agreed that they would handle this problem and be in place to take down Voldemort when all of the horcruxes were destroyed.

Their only problem now was predicting where Nagini and Voldemort would be when they were ready to attack.

//

After the first two horcruxes were destroyed, the problem of finding Voldemort became easy. They hadn't expected him to notice the absence of these two fragments of his soul since he was already so fractured, but reportedly, he had a moment of great weakness and suddenly looked much older and more ill than he had before. Bill and Narcissa unknowingly destroyed the cup at the same time that Theo and Luna were destroying the diadem, so the resulting change was noticeable.

Voldemort couldn't know for sure of course that his horcruxes had been destroyed since Harry Potter hadn't done it. He couldn't spy through the eyes of a teenage boy this time, so he could only assume that someone had demolished another piece of his ugly, ruined soul.

So, in a rage, he planned to go to the place Harry considered home with the intent of inducing terror. Luckily, the group at Shell Cottage heard the school's distress call immediately when it went up on the radio. They traveled to Hogsmeade, where Luna said she knew a way into Hogwarts, after they heard the new threats at Hogwarts.

When Neville and Briar appeared in the opening to Luna's secret tunnel, everyone just about cried.

Draco even crushed Briar into a hug, something so unexpected that everyone held their breath when he did so. Briar herself was startled by his gesture and nearly hit him in reflex, but when she saw the teary smile on Lorelei's face, she slowly relaxed.